Lucasfilm, which made the announcement on StarWars.com on Thursday, did not reveal the subject of the new movie, although there have been rumors that the new spinoffs would focus on characters like bounty hunter Boba Fett and Yoda. Disney has said it plans to produce at least three of those films.

Disney also has said it intends to release a new “Star Wars”-related movie (including spinoffs) every year starting with next year’s “Star Wars: Episode VII,” that J.J. Abrams is currently directing, and will be released Dec. 18, 2015.

Along with his love for classic monster movies, Edwards has also been a longtime fan of George Lucas’ sci-fi franchise.

“Ever since I saw ‘Star Wars’ I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life — join the Rebel Alliance!,” Edwards said in a statement. “I could not be more excited and honored to go on this mission with Lucasfilm.”

Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros. scored at the box office last weekend with “Godzilla,” which opened to $93 million Stateside and has gone on to earn $112 million to date. A sequel is in the works.

Before directing “Godzilla,” Edwards’ only directing credit was the $500,000-budgeted “Monsters,” which he also wrote, and handled the cinematography and visual effects.

Whitta’s credits also include having developed Telltale Games’ hit adaptation of “The Walking Dead,” and worked as a journalist and editor in the video game industry.

“From the moment I first saw the original movie as a wide-eyed kid, ‘Star Wars’ has been the single most profound inspiration to my imagination and to my career as a writer,” Whitta said. “It is deeply special to me, so to be given the opportunity to contribute to its ongoing legacy, especially in collaboration with a film-maker as talented as Gareth, is literally a dream come true. I’m still pinching myself.”

Legendary chairman Thomas Tull, who pushed for Edwards to direct “Godzilla,” was quick to congratulate the director and his new gig.

“Gareth’s filmmaking talent makes him one of his generation’s most creative and visionary directors,” Tull said in a statement. “The plan has always been for Gareth to direct a different film before we started on another Godzilla, but who knew it would a ‘Star Wars’ installment? We have a great plan in store for Godzilla fans and I am looking forward to seeing Gareth’s imprint on the ‘Star Wars’ universe.”

Going to the cinema has become like watching a really expensive television channel featuring the same shows (Star Wars spinoffs), same characters (Marvel-type superhero crap), and the same programming (YA rubbish, countless reboots and Hasbro branded concepts). Cinema, especially that coming from America, is depressingly awful.

Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla is mediocre at best. If you want to spend the first hour of your creature-feature as a character-focussed story then at least develop interesting protagonists as opposed to embarrassing caricatures. The guy is a hired hand at best.

I don’t know. I actually went back and watched the original Star Wars (can you say 1970’s world) and the last new three which were robot world (including the human actors), I’m not sure I’m going to be in to any more Star Wars. I was wowed as a kid, but I think the glitter has worn off of this made up, weirdo world.

Having seen both “Monsters” and “Godzilla”, I’m not yet certain if Gareth Edwards is good with big-budget films. I really liked “Monsters” but “Godzilla” had the feel of a movie-by-committee production. I didn’t get the sense that he had much influence on the result.

Go back and watch the original Toho Godzilla films (which you have obviously never seen) and you will find that often Godzilla is only in the movie between 15 & 20 minutes. The original Gojira from 1954 (which Edwards cited as his primary influence) only featured the monster for approximately 14 minutes. Sorry if old-fashioned 70s style filmmaking isn’t enough to satisfy the ADHD generation.

Really bad call. He made his first movie look like it’s Budget. It was still a great movie (great Character Development and so on). If you consider the Budget of of Godzilla not a whole lot happened in that movie. Get Mike Mendez who made Big Ass Spider, which had exactly the same budget as Monsters , but he made it look like a multimillion Dollar Tentpole Movie, f you watch it, it even has the kind of Humor the Original Star Wars had. Also I don’t want to watch a movie that’s over 2 hours and get a maximum of 10 minutes of action. If Edwards had made the original Star Wars they would discuss how to destroy the Death Star, Cut, then talk about their Feelings about it…….